


Napping

by NerdChild644461217



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25651162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdChild644461217/pseuds/NerdChild644461217
Summary: The first summer she’d met Aang, they’d been in the middle of a war, and she and Sokka both had barely noticed it. The following years, however, they fell back into the slow, lazy rhythm of the polar night, whether they were in the south at the time or not. After a few years of being in the South Pole during the polar night, however, Aang figured out the times not to be in the South Pole. The polar night made him restless, needing the sun, needing something, anything to do. He also found out you could take the girl out of the South Pole, but you couldn’t take the South Pole out of the girl.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 66





	Napping

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! This is for Kataang Week 2020 Day 6, Napping! I hope y'all enjoy it! Friendly reminder that I haven't read the comics nor seen Legend of Korra, so I apologize if anything in this differs from those!

Back in the South Pole, the polar night lasted for eleven weeks, roughly the entirety of summer. While they didn’t exactly do nothing during those months, the temperatures dropped so low, it made it hard to justify going out of their small house. They lived off the fish Sokka had caught during the midnight sun, and Kanna and Katara would knit, and they wouldn’t do much else. It was a vaguely relaxing time in an otherwise grueling environment.

The first summer she’d met Aang, they’d been in the middle of a war, and she and Sokka both had barely noticed it. The following years, however, they fell back into the slow, lazy rhythm of the polar night, whether they were in the south at the time or not. After a few years of being in the South Pole during the polar night, however, Aang figured out the times not to be in the South Pole. The polar night made him restless, needing the sun, needing something, anything to do. He also found out you could take the girl out of the South Pole, but you couldn’t take the South Pole out of the girl.

“Katara.” He groaned, her arms tightening around him as he tried to stand. “We have things to do!” His protests were a little more than half-hearted, but he wasn’t completely opposed to staying with Katara all day.

They were sitting at the edge of the Southern Air Temple, nothing but clouds and air beneath their feet. Aang had some scrolls that Zuko had sent, and the purpose of their little picnic on the edge of the temple had been to get out for some fresh air while still getting some work done. His wife, however, seemed to have other plans. She was leaning on him, her head nestled in the crook of his shoulder, and her arm slung over him. Aang knew if he let himself relax even a little, they’d both tumble backwards onto their blanket.

“’Mm sleepy.” She mumbled, nestling further into his body.

“We got up two hours ago, sweetheart.” Aang laughed at her, angling his head to kiss the top of hers. She was always a bit indolent this time of year, but it got ten times worse after she’d eaten.

She sighed at him. “Iss supposed to be durk.”

Aang laughed again at her mumbling. If she managed to get down to the Southern Water Tribe during the polar night, the next year’s summer was always harder for her to, well… function. And they’d spent last summer in the South, much to Aang’s chagrin. For all his complaining about it, he really didn’t mind it. His beautiful wife lazily lounging around in her night clothes against the background of his home was exhilarating in a way he hadn’t expected it to be. Another thing he found out was she liked to lounge around wherever he was, which puffed up his pride in a way not much else did.

“It’s dark in the south. We’re too far north for that.”

“Ugh.” She groaned against his skin. “North is stupid.”

He let out an actual belly laugh at that, dislodging her. She slid down, her head coming to rest on his crossed legs. She pouted for a moment at being moved, but soon settled into a more comfortable position, stretching her body out and flattening out on her back.

“This is nice.” She said, settling more comfortably into her new position.

Aang laughed at her again. He reached down to take her hair out of its braid, running his fingers through it to untangle it. Her eyes narrowed in delight, and Aang couldn’t help but thinking she looked slightly like a cat. After her braid was undone, he continued to run his hand through her hair, just for the feel of it. Her eyes shut completely then, and she turned her head slightly so he could get a better angle at it.

“’M gonna sleep.” She mumbled.

“Okay, sweetheart.” Aang laughed at her again. He kept doing that for a few more moments, attempting to lull her into sleep. Once she was, he leaned over her to start working on the scrolls Zuko had sent.

* * *

It had been an hour, Aang thought. He wasn’t sure, but he knew his right leg was asleep from Katara’s head. He’d waited as long as he could, but he needed to stand up. He’d finished the scrolls Zuko had sent anyway, so he could take her in and get her into a proper bed. Aang lifted her head as gently as he could, quickly moving his leg out of the way an shifting to his knees. Now came the hard part, putting her head back down without jolting her awake. He was gentle, using a small burst of wind to lighten the blow as he took his hands away and left her on the blanket. He stayed there for a moment, his hands slightly outstretched in case she did wake. Once it became clear she wouldn’t, he let out a sigh of relief, and stood up. He stretched his arms and legs, walking around to get some feeling back into his appendages, before shaking it off and beginning to gather the leftovers of their picnic back into the small basket. Once he had everything but the blanket Katara was on, he resumed his position of kneeling beside her. He gently brushed some strays hairs from her face, and let his hand travel to her shoulder, shaking her gently.

“Sweetheart.” He whispered to her, not wanting to jolt her awake. “Come on, let’s get you inside."

She groaned as she shifted, lying more on her side. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Comfy.” She stated, simply.

“Comfy?” Aang laughed at her. “You’re on the ground.”  
  


Katara open one eye to half ass a glare at him. “Maybe the ground is comfy.”

“Whatever you say, sweetie.” He said, still laughing at her. “Can I at least have the blanket, then?”

She rolled back onto her back and opened her other eye. “You’re leaving?”

“I’ve got to send some of these scrolls back with replies.” He motioned towards the scrolls in their basket.

“Ugh.” She groaned, sitting up and starting to fold the blanket.

“Now you’re coming with me?” He questioned her.

“I don’t want to stay out here alone.” She offered lamely, shrugging.

“Riiiight.” Aang smirked at her, which she decidedly ignored.

There are times she likes to be alone. It gives her time to think, time to practice her bending, just time to herself, which means a lot when she helped stop a hundred year war, she’s an ambassador to the South Pole _and_ an unofficial ambassador to the Air Nomads. Being married to the Avatar didn’t help either, but any stressors that arose from that mostly came from young girls who fawned over him. However, there was something about summertime that made her like to be near her family… recently Aang in particular. She had mentioned it once to Sokka, and he said something similar happened with he and Suki during the summer. His theory was that they spent all that time with their family during the polar night, usually because the wind and snow got so bad they couldn’t go anywhere else, but it was time with their family either way. When they both got married, those feelings of being together with their family transferred to their respective spouses. Katara thought it made sense, as Aang had become her family, even before they were married.

Her thoughts were broken when they turned a corner and began the ascent to the temple proper. Her hand was wrapped around Aang’s bicep, anchoring them together, and she was hoping she could coax him into laying with her for just a little while before he got back to his work. Katara knew there were things _she_ should be doing as well. It wasn’t like the South Pole where outside activity more or less stopped. Summer was a busy time for the rest of the world. She told herself she’d do her work when Aang did his. She then also made it her mission to keep Aang from doing his work at all costs.

They arrived at ‘their’ wing of the temple. The temple was huge, designed to house well over 1,000 monks and monks to be. She and Aang stayed mostly in the lower areas, where Aang himself had stayed. When they had first arrived there, they tried living in one of the nicer apartments, one that had belonged to one of the elders, Aang had told her. But even though he didn’t know who’s it was, she could tell it reminded him of who it _could_ have been. They lasted all of two days before she moved their things down to where the younger Air Nomads had stayed. Aang never mentioned the move, but she could see the relief in his eyes, as well as feel the thanks in the way he acted around her for weeks after.

She left him to deposit the remains of the picnic basket in the kitchen, and made her way back to their small bedroom. What had once been Aang’s sparsely decorated room, just a bed and a chest of drawers, Katara, Suki, and Ty Lee had turned into a conglomerate of all four nations. While Katara let the ‘Air Nomad-ness’ of the room shine through, leaving Aang’s sheets on the bed, as well as his chest, Ty Lee had come up with the idea of ‘accent walls’, ignoring Mai’s protest that ‘accent wall’ was meant to be only one. They had done the south wall with mostly blue Water Tribe knick knacks, most were things from Katara’s old room in the South Pole, the west wall with red Fire Nation accents, which Mai, for all her protesting, had brought, and the north wall in Earth Kingdom green, the final wall to the east had Aang’s traditional yellow sheets, his bed, and his chest, and nothing else. They did it all over the course of a few days, all while Mai and Toph got in the way and complained about waiting on them to finish before they could ‘do something interesting’. All in all, the room looked like a total mess. ‘It couldn’t quite find itself.’ Ty Lee had commented, after they were done. They had decided to take it down and try again, but Toph and Mai insisted it could be done the next day, not wanting to repeat the process immediately after finishing it the first time. Of course, they had been living there for almost three years, and Katara hadn’t changed a thing. She had actually gotten used to the messy variation of wall to wall, and it comforted her, somewhat. She kept telling herself she would change it, as well as Suki and Ty Lee always insisting that they’d do something about it the next time they came down. Funnily enough, every time they came to visit, nobody touched a thing.

She rolled her eyes at the memory, but there was a soft smile on her lips as she looked around their mess of a room. She turned and settled herself into their bed, not quite getting under the covers yet. If she got too comfy and her plans failed, she wasn’t sure she’d have the willpower to convince herself to get up and do some actual work. Aang came in, acknowledging her with a small kiss on her forehead before turning to his drawers and rummaging through them.   
  


“I’m going to wash up then head over to get some work done, okay?”

She reached over and tugged on his tunic. “I don’t want to go over to the classrooms.” She heard the whine in her voice, but she was tired, and really couldn’t find it in herself to care at that moment. The old classrooms where Aang and other young Air Nomads had their lessons was where they’d both set up offices of sorts. They really weren’t far, but walking was the last thing Katara wanted to do at that moment.

Aang chuckled at her, turning to her with his fresh clothes in his hand. “Then stay here. I shouldn’t be long.”

She flopped back onto her back dramatically. “I don’t want to be alone either.”

He looked at her skeptically. He had an inkling of where this was going, and he knew he’d have to get out before she really turned it up, and he’d be putty in her hands. “Come on, sweetie. I won’t be long, and the sooner I get this done, the sooner I can come back here, okay?” He offered, hoping she’d take the bait.

She didn’t.

“Or we could stay here together for a little bit and _then_ go do work together?” She offered, that hopefulness in her eyes that reminded him strangely of a puppy.

He leaned down to give her a proper kiss on the mouth, pulling back when he felt her start to deepen it. She grabbed his tunic quickly, preventing him from backing away too far, giving him the space he would need to resist her.

He groaned. “You know I want to stay, but I need to send these out.”

She wasn’t listening to him, leaning up and beginning to trail wet kisses from his ear down.

“No, no no no.” He began quickly, backing away as much as he could with her grip on him, which admittedly wasn’t much, but enough to dislodge her for a moment. “We both have things to do and- hmph.” He was cut off by her mouth again. She used the fact that he was talking when she cut him off to deepen the kiss, and all thoughts of escaping her to answer Zuko flew out the window. He loved Zuko, but if he had appeared in the doorway in that instant, Aang would have sent him flying on a gust of wind powerful enough to deposit him back in the Fire Nation. He let her pull him onto the bed, dropping his clean clothing onto the stone floor. She smiled into the kiss when she felt his weight on the bed next to her.

“Yeah yeah, don’t say anything.” He retorted against her mouth. She answered with a laugh, flopping down on the bed, dislodging them both from the kiss.

“And to think I was going to blow off Avatar duties for you.” Aang snarked half-heartedly, twitching his body like he was going to stand up.

“Wait wait wait.” She was still giggling, but she reached out to fist her hands in his tunic again, preventing him from moving… even if he had no intention of actually going anywhere. “Stay, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, you sound like it.” He smiled at her before leaning down to kiss her again.

“I am!” She insisted when they broke apart. She pulled him down from his sitting position, getting him to lie down next to her.

Katara moved, throwing herself half over him to prevent him from moving away from her. She tucked herself into his chest, slinging an arm and a leg over him and fitting her head on his shoulder.

“Comfortable?” He asked amusedly at all her fidgeting.

“Almost.” She retorted back, wiggling against him for a moment longer just to irk him. “Now I’m done.”   
  


He playfully rolled his eyes at her, adjusting his own arm underneath her and bringing the other one up to stroke her side. They laid there in silence for a long time, long enough that Aang thought she had gone to sleep. He was debating on attempting to untangle himself so he could send the scrolls off or just stay here with her. Well, he pretended he was debating. Not much could be happening out in the world at that moment that would have made him get up from his beautiful wife’s embrace. His fake debate ended rather quickly when she lifted her head up to look at him.

“Aang?” She questioned.

Her sleepy blue eyes and the soft, pliant feel of her body beneath his hands, and he knew in that moment that whatever she was about to ask of him, he’d go to the ends of the earth to get it for her.

“Yes?” He answered, swallowing thickly.

“I’m cold.” She stated simply.

He looked at her a moment before her words registered. He gave her a slight laugh, to which she responded to with a slight pout.

“I am!” She insisted, thinking he didn’t believe her.

“I know, I know.” He laughed again, holding up the hand that had been on her side to show her a sign of surrender. “You just spent a lot of time getting comfortable for you to decide that you were cold now.”

Katara responded to that with a slight glare, but was still tired enough that she couldn’t find it in herself to come up with a retort. Aang responded to her glare with a peck on the nose. He smiled at her as her glare deepened, causing it to deepen even more. He gave up on their war of wills, looking away from her so he could shift her more fully on top of his body.

“Uhm. Aang, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said I was cold.”  
  


“What?” He glanced at her, not following her words. His eyes suddenly widened. “Oh! No, no not what I meant, I just needed to move you so I could, well…” He was stumbling over his words, so he just reached over and grabbed the sheets, turning them back, and laying her down in them, covering her up. “I was just trying to get you under the sheets.” He finished sheepishly when all he could see was her head poking above his yellow sheets.

“Oh!” It was her turn to look sheepish, a blush coloring her dark cheeks, which stayed there until he settled himself under the sheets next to her. She leaned over him, resuming her position of halfway on top of him, but stretching up to start peppering kisses across his jaw. “If you wanted to though…” She trailed off as her kisses trailed down, covering his neck.

He gently dislodged her, settling her back on his collarbone. “Maybe later.” He chuckled at her. “I know you’re tired, and honestly, so am I.”

She hummed against him instead of replying, settling herself into him. His arm came up to rub small circles into her back, trying to coax her into sleep. It didn’t take long for it to work, her soft snores filling the room. He felt himself being lulled into sleep by her even breathing, despite the bright sunlight still coming in through the window to his left. He decided to ignore that for now, turning his head to breathe her in, and knew he wouldn’t be awake for too much longer. Zuko and his scrolls could wait, Aang decided. Napping with Katara was worth it.


End file.
